Base station, network system, and implementation method

ABSTRACT

A base station includes multiple edge nodes and a central node. The edge nodes are configured to perform communication with a user equipment, and execute baseband processing and mutual conversion between baseband data and radio data, in which the multiple edge nodes belong to one or more edge node groups, and each edge node group includes at least one edge node. The central node is configured to perform communication with the multiple edge nodes, manage the multiple edge nodes, and perform resource sharing so that resources are shared by the multiple edge nodes. The base station is divided into two levels of architecture, namely, a central node and an edge node, and the central node implements resource sharing so that resources are shared by the edge nodes, so that a resource sharing degree in the base station is enhanced.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/478,812, filed on May 23, 2012, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/CN2010/079042, filed on Nov. 24, 2010,which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 200910188422.5,filed on Nov. 24, 2009. All of the aforementioned patent applicationsare hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention relate to the communicationstechnology, and in particular, to a base station, a network system, andan implementation method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

With the rapid development of mobile broadband, the mobile network isgoing through unprecedented changes. The mobile standard is graduallyevolving from the GSM to the UMTS and LTE. However, due to the factorsof market policy and network maturity, these standards will coexist fora long time, which brings new challenges to the design of base stationarchitecture and the operation and maintenance management of basestations. Based on the idea of simplifying the network structure andreducing the overall network cost, network flattening will be amainstream trend for the future evolution of networks. In this trend,the flattening of a RAN (access network) and downward movement of a partof functions of a core network to a base station for implementation areimportant development trends. In addition, for problems of capacity,bandwidth, and boundary coverage of the cellular network, some newtechnologies such as CoMP (Coordinated multi-point, coordinatedmulti-point) and Relay (relay) keep emerging. These technologies alsobring about new requirements for mobile network architecture and basestation architecture. Additionally, the rapid growth for mobilebandwidth requirements in hot spot regions greatly increases the numberand standards of base stations in these hot spot regions, and theconventional base station architecture and deployment mode will hardlyadapt to these changes.

An existing solution (namely, a BBU Hotel solution) is shown in FIG. 1.In the solution, a distributed base station is adopted, and thedistributed base station is formed of a BBU (baseband unit) and an RRU(remote radio unit). The BBU processes the digital unit part, while theRRU process the radio part. One BBU is connected to multiple RRUs toform one distributed base station.

In the BBU Hotel solution, the BBUs in the distributed base stations aredeployed in a central equipment room in a centralized manner, andcurrently several carriers are using such a deployment manner.

The inventors find in the process of implementing the present inventionthat, due to the deficiencies of the current base station architecture,the BBU Hotel is implemented only in a manner of simply stacking BBUs,and the BBUs are not able to effectively share resources.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the present invention provide a base station, a basestation management method, a network system, and a communication method.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a base station, whichincludes a central node and multiple edge nodes. The edge node isconfigured to perform communication with a user, and execute basebandprocessing and mutual conversion between baseband data and radio data.The multiple edge nodes belong to one or more edge node groups, eachedge node group includes at least one edge node. The central node isconfigured to perform communication with the multiple edge nodes, managethe multiple edge nodes, and perform resource sharing so that resourcesare shared by the multiple edge nodes.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a base stationmanagement method, in which the base station includes a central node andmultiple edge nodes in communication with the central node. The methodincludes: grouping a part or all of edge nodes of the multiple edgenodes to obtain one or more edge node groups, in which each edge nodegroup includes at least one edge node; configuring the central node asone or more logic central nodes; combining one logic central node and atleast one edge node group as one logic network element to obtain one ormore logic network elements; and managing the one or more logic networkelements.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a networksystem, which includes a first base station and a core network, in whichthe first base station further includes a central node and multiple edgenodes. The edge node is configured to perform communication with a user,and execute baseband processing and mutual conversion between basebanddata and radio data. The multiple edge nodes belong to one or more edgenode groups, and each edge node group includes at least one edge node.The central node is configured to perform communication with themultiple edge nodes, manage the multiple edge nodes, and performresource sharing so that resources are shared by the multiple edgenodes.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a communicationmethod in a network system, in which the network system includes a firstbase station and a core network, and the first base station includes acentral node and multiple edge nodes. The edge nodes perform servicecommunication with a user, and executes baseband processing and mutualconversion between baseband data and radio data. The central nodeperforms communication with the edge nodes, manages the edge nodes, andperform resource sharing so that resources are shared by the multipleedge nodes. In the method, the edge nodes of the first base stationperform communication with the core network through the central node.

In the embodiments of the present invention, the base station is dividedinto two levels of architecture, namely, a central node and an edgenode, and the central node implements resource sharing so that resourcesare shared by the edge nodes, so that a resource sharing degree in thebase station is enhanced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

To illustrate the technical solutions according to the embodiments ofthe present invention or in the prior art more clearly, the accompanyingdrawings for describing the embodiments or the prior art are introducedbriefly in the following.

FIG. 1 shows a BBU Hotel solution in the prior art;

FIG. 2a is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according toan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2b is a schematic structural diagram of a central node in FIG. 2a ;

FIG. 2c is another schematic structural diagram of the central node inFIG. 2a ;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a logic network element in animplementation of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a base station management methodaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-mode base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of interworking of edge nodes of a basestation according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of synchronization of a base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a network system accordingto an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a network system communication methodprovided in an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The inventors find through analysis that, in the BBU Hotel solution,because the BBUs are completely independent from each other and are onlysimply stacked, resource sharing so that resources are shared by theBBUs cannot be implemented, and it is difficult to perform highlyeffective exchange of service data among the BBUs. Furthermore, from theangle of network management, the BBU management granularity (namely, theminimal management object) is also fixed and cannot be flexiblyadjusted.

It can be predicted that multiple communication standards will coexistfor a period of time. In a multi-standard base station, if such a BBUHotel solution is adopted, new problems are further introduced. Becausethe BBU needs to support multiple standards, for example, the GSM andthe UMTS, while different standard boards of a same station are usuallyplaced in a same BBU, the BBU expansion is limited by the physicalspace. In addition, in a multi-standard base station, the requirement ofclock synchronization among the BBUs is higher. A usable clocksynchronization method is that, each BBU is connected to one externalGPS clock, which, however, increases the networking cost.

The network flattening is a mainstream trend of future evolution of thenetwork, and in such an evolutionary trend, a part of functions whichare previously implemented at the core network may be moved downward tothe base station to implement. Meanwhile, a radio access network is alsogradually evolving in the direction of being intelligent. To supportsuch an evolutionary trend, the base station needs to implement a largenumber of newly added network service functions, and currently themainstream implementation manner is to implement the network servicefunctions at the BBU. In practical applications, to improve thebandwidth for a single user, the coverage of the base station graduallybecomes smaller and the deployment density becomes higher. If each BBUimplements the network service functions, the cost of each base stationincreases, further increasing the construction cost of the entirenetwork. At present, most of the network service functions have thecharacteristics of complicated protocols and frequently changingprotocols. If these functions are all implemented at the base station,the base station equipment needs to frequently upgrade in a large scale,which increases the operating cost of the carriers.

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention areclearly and completely described in the following with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 2a is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according toan embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2a , in thisembodiment, the base station includes: a central node 11 and multipleedge nodes 12. An edge node 12 is configured to perform communicationwith a user, and execute baseband processing and mutual conversionbetween baseband data and radio data. The multiple edge nodes 12 belongto one or more edge node groups (or subgroups), and each edge node groupincludes at least one edge node. The central node 11 is configured toperform communication with the multiple edge nodes 12, manage themultiple edge nodes, and perform resource sharing so that resources areshared by the multiple edge nodes. The central node can obtain theresource condition of each edge node of the base stations, for example,the edge node reports its resource condition to the central node, or thecentral node detects the resource condition of the edge node. Theresource condition of an edge node specifically may include a staticconfiguration situation and a dynamic use situation. When a resourceshortage situation occurs on one edge node, the central node forwardsdata corresponding to the edge node to an edge node having idleresources to process, for example, forwards, to other edge nodes, datathat goes beyond the processing capability of the edge node, that is,forwards the part of data that the edge node fails to process due toinsufficient resources, thereby implementing resource sharing so thatresources are shared by the edge nodes. For example, when the centralnode obtains that a baseband processing resource of one edge node isinsufficient, the central node can forward baseband data in the edgenode to other edge nodes having idle baseband resources to process.Through the base station provided in this embodiment, the edge node atleast can perform baseband processing and mutual conversion betweenbaseband data and radio data, and when a processing resource, forexample, a baseband resource, of one edge node is insufficient, theresources of other edge nodes may be acquired through the central nodeto assist processing. It is easy to understand that, in the field ofradio communications, that the edge node 12 is configured to performcommunication with a user includes the following: the edge node 12 isconfigured to receive radio data sent by a user through an airinterface; or the edge node 12 is configured to send radio data to auser through an air interface; or the edge node 12 is configured toreceive radio data sent by a user through an air interface and sendradio data to a user through an air interface.

It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present invention, theprocess of mutual conversion between baseband data and radio data mayinclude intermediate frequency processing. The intermediate frequencyprocessing may also be omitted, and the conversion between baseband dataand radio data can be directly implemented in a zero intermediatefrequency manner.

In this embodiment, the central node 11 and the edge nodes areinterworked in a star manner, that is, the central node 11 is connectedto each edge node 12. In a same edge node group, the edge nodes furtherperforms communication and interaction (that is, the interaction ofprotocol data) through the central node. The protocol data includescontrol plane data and user plane data. In addition, if the base stationonly provides one communication standard, that is, each edge node 12only provides one communication standard, the central node 11 canfurther provide some public services to implement resource sharing sothat resources are shared by the edge nodes. For example, the centralnode 11 can provide one or more types of processing such as signalingprotocol processing, data encapsulation processing, IPsec (IP Security,IP security protocol) processing. If the base station supports multiplecommunication standards, in consideration of decoupling among differentstandards, to reduce the inferences on other standards potentiallycaused by operations such as upgrade on one standard, exemplarily,standard-related processing such as signaling protocol processing anddata encapsulation processing can be implemented at the edge node, andprocessing such as IPsec that is not related to the standard can stillbe implemented at the central node. Through the above manners, someprocessing resources of the central node can be shared by the edgenodes.

Correspondingly, central node can further provide a standard interfaceconfigured to communicate with the core network directly or indirectly,and specifically, the interface type depends on the communicationstandard supported by the base station. In the case of an LTE standard,the standard interface can be an S1 interface, and the base station isdirectly connected to an S-GW/MME in the core network through the S1interface, in which the S-GW is a service gateway configured to provideservices for a user plane, the MME is a mobile management entityconfigured to provide services at a control plane, and the S-GW and theMMEM coexist, and can be located at one physical entity and can also belocated at different physical entities during the implementation. In thecase of a UMTS standard, the standard interface can be an Iub interface,the base station is connected to a base station control device (in aUMTS standard, the base station control device is specifically a radionetwork controller RNC) through the Iub interface, and is connected tothe core network through the base station control device. If the basestation supports multiple standards, the central node can providemultiple standard interfaces, for example, when the base stationsupports the LTE standard and the UMTS standard, the central node canprovide an 51 interface and an Tub interface at the same time.

In the trends that the network evolves to flattening and the radioaccess network evolves in the direction of becoming intelligent, thebase station needs to implement a large number of newly added networkservice functions, which include LBO (Local breakout, local breakout),DPI (Deep Packet Inspect, deep packet inspect), and network cache(cache), and so on. To adapt to such development trends, in thisembodiment, the central node 11 further supports a part or all of theseforegoing network function services, for protocol data of a user gettingaccess through the edge node 12, the operations of one or more networkservice functions such as LBO, DPI, and network cache are performed atthe central node 11.

At a physical position, the central node 11 is deployed at an equipmentroom, for example, a central equipment room. The multiple edge nodes 12can all be deployed at the central equipment room, and can also bepartially deployed at the central equipment room and partially deployedat a remote equipment room or outdoors, which is not limited in theembodiments of the present invention. The base station is divided intotwo level of structures, namely, a central node and an edge node, nomatter where the edge nodes are, the central node can implement on theedge nodes (or edge node groups) the management such as configurationmanagement and alarm management.

The connections inside the base station in the embodiments of thepresent invention, that is, the interworking between the central nodeand the edge nodes, can be implemented through a user-defined interface.For example, the central node 11 and the edge nodes 12 are interworkedin a P2P (point-to-point) manner. The central node 11 manages each edgenode 12 or each edge node group through the user-defined interface, andthe protocol data transmission between the central node 11 and the edgenodes 12 as well as the protocol data exchange among different edgenodes 12 can also be performed through the P2P connection.

For management requirements, the central node 11 further supports thefunction of grouping edge nodes 12. During the grouping, the centralnode can perform grouping according to different standards, for example,perform grouping according to a carrier coordinated multi-point (CoMP)plan; or perform grouping according to practical operating physicalareas of a carrier; or perform grouping according to managementrequirements of different communication standard; or perform groupingaccording to a sharing strategy in which multiple carriers operate aradio access network together; or perform grouping according to otherrequirements. One or more groups of edge nodes may exist. In onegrouping manner, for example, during grouping according to thecommunication standards, if more edge node groups exist, each of atleast two groups of the multiple edge node groups supports a differentcommunication standard. For example, a first group supports the UMTSstandard, a second group supports the LTE standard, and furthermore, athird group that supports the GSM standard may also exist. It is easy tounderstand that, in such a grouping situation, the edge nodes thatbelong to a same edge node group support the same standard.

For the first group, the edge nodes of the first group support the UMTSstandard, and for the second group, the edge nodes of the second groupsupport the LTE standard.

In this embodiment, strict clock synchronization further needs to beguaranteed among the edge nodes belong to a same edge node group.Therefore, upon acquiring clock synchronization information, the centralnode 11 sends a reference clock to the edge nodes 12 in one or more edgenode groups, and synchronization can be implemented among the edge nodesthat belong to a same group based on the reference clock.

During specific implementation, compared with a conventional basestation, the base station in this embodiment includes a central node andedge nodes. The edge nodes at least need to perform baseband processingand mutual conversion between baseband data and radio data. The edgenode can be implemented on the basis of a conventional base station. Forexample, the conventional base station is upgraded to obtain edge nodes,and the upgrade is mainly to add internal management protocols betweenthe edge nodes and th central node. The central node is one newlycreated entity (or a network element). The basic functions of thecentral node are to perform communication with the edge nodes, managethe edge nodes (or edge node groups), and implement resource sharing,for example, baseband resource sharing, among different edge nodes. Itis easy to understand that the specific form of the edge node can be thesame as that of the conventional base station. For example, the edgenode can be a distributed base station (BBU+RRU), a macro base station,an integrated base station (a radio part and a baseband part areintegrated on one board), a micro base station (Micro), or a pico basestation (Pico), or a base station in any other form, such as a femtobase station (femto), which is not limited in the embodiments of thepresent invention. It can be understood that, according to theembodiment of the present invention, when the edge node adopts adistributed base station manner, the edge node includes a BBU and anRRU, and BBUs among different edge nodes can be grouped into onebaseband resource pool.

The central node 11 can use the structure shown in FIG. 2b . The centralnode 11 can include the following modules: a management module 111,configured to manage the edge nodes; and an interface module 112,configured to provide interfaces between the central node and the edgenodes. Specifically, the interface module 112 can include a resourcesharing module and a communication module, in which the resource sharingmodule is configured to acquire resource conditions of the edge nodes,and according to the resource conditions, implement resource sharing sothat resources are shared by multiple edge nodes, and the communicationmodule is configured to implement communication between the central nodeand the edge nodes.

Furthermore, the management module 111 can further perform management onthe central node. The management on the edge nodes and the central nodeby the management module 111 can specifically include configurationmanagement, alarm management, and so on.

Another structure of the central node 11 is shown in FIG. 2c . Thecentral node 11, in addition to including the management module 111 andthe interface module 112, on the basis of FIG. 2b , can further add atleast one of a radio signaling processing module 113, a transmissionmodule 114, a grouping module 115, a network module 116, and asynchronization module 117. The radio signaling processing module 113 isconfigured to perform communication with a core network or a basestation control device, and can specifically include processing relatedto the signaling protocol. The transmission module 114 is configured toperform functions related to radio transmission, and the functionsrelated to radio transmission can specifically include dataencapsulation processing, IPsec processing, and so on. The groupingmodule 115 is configured to group the edge nodes, and during specificapplications, the grouping module can group the edge nodes according todifferent standards. The network module 116 is configured to provide anetwork service function for each edge node, in which the networkservice function includes at least one of the following functions: localbreakout, deep packet inspect, and network cache. The synchronizationmodule 117 is configured to provide a reference clock for edge nodes ofthe one or more edge node groups.

Through the user-defined interface, for example, an interface supportingthe P2P protocol, protocol data exchange can be implemented between thecentral node 11 and the edge nodes 12. In consideration of a possiblegreat amount of data exchange between the edge nodes, based on thespecific implementation manner of each central node, the interfacemodule 113 can further include: a CoMP module, configured to provide aninterface supporting the CoMP protocol. Correspondingly, the edge nodescan further provide an interface supporting the CoMP protocol, andthrough the CoMP protocol, data exchange can be performed amongdifferent edge nodes that belong to a same edge node group.

In this embodiment, the base station is divided into two level ofstructures, namely, a central node and an edge node, and resourcesharing between the central node and the edge nodes is implemented.Also, the edge nodes can belong to different groups to adapt to multipledifferent application scenarios, and meet various requirements ofcarriers. Furthermore, a part of functions are implemented at thecentral node in a centralized manner, so the resource sharing degree ofthe base station is enhanced.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a logic network element in a basestation provided in an embodiment of the present invention. As shown inFIG. 3, in this embodiment, the base station includes a central node andmultiple edge nodes, and the multiple edge nodes are divided into twogroups. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the base station supportsthe UMTS standard and the LTE standard, and between the base station anda core network, further an RNC (radio network server) is set for theUMTS standard and an S-GW/MME is set for the LTE standard.

For a conventional base station, for example, taking a distributed basestation as an example, each BBU is connected to RRUs to form one basestation having distributed architecture. With the development of mobilebroadband, the number of base stations grows bigger, and the deploymentdensity becomes higher, which cause a great difficulty to the networkingand operation and maintenance management of carriers.

In this embodiment, the function of combining multiple edge node groupsto construct a logic network element is supported, which can reduce themanagement complexity. Specifically, the central node can be configuredinto multiple logic central nodes, and one implementation manner of thelogic central node is to divide physical resources of the central nodeto form logic resources, and implement isolation of the logic resourcesthrough technical measures, so as to virtualize multiple logic centralnodes in the central node. One logic central node and at least one edgenode group are combined to form one logic network element, as shown inFIG. 3, the central node has a first logic central node and a secondlogic central node, a first edge node group and the first logic centralnode can be combined to form a first logic network element. In addition,a second edge node group and the second logic central node can also becombined to form a second logic network element.

Each logic network element is directly or indirectly connected to a corenetwork through a respective interface. For example, the first logicnetwork element is connected to a base station control device through anIub interface, and the base station control device is connected to thecore network. The second logic network element can be connected to thecore network through an Si interface. Each logic central node canprovide corresponding edge node groups with some public services, forexample, one or more types of processing such as signaling protocolprocessing, data encapsulation processing, and IPsec processing.

Inside one logic network element, the interworking between the logiccentral node and the edge nodes can be implemented through auser-defined interface. For example, the central node and the edge nodesare interworked in a P2P (point-to-point) manner. The function of theedge node can be regarded as a subset of the function of a conventionalbase station, which mainly implements processing of radio baseband andintermediate radio frequency. The management of edge node is implementedat the logic central node. For example, the logic central node performsconfiguration management, alarm management, and so on on the edge nodesbelonging thereto and resource sharing so that resources are shared bythe multiple edge nodes. In addition, transmission of protocol data, forexample, baseband data between the logic central node and the edge nodescan also be performed through the user-defined interface. If the logiccentral node and the edge nodes further provide an interface supportingthe CoMP protocol or the user-defined interface further supports the

CoMP protocol, the logic central node and the edge nodes can furtherperform data transmission through the CoMP protocol, so that the highertransmission efficiency can be achieved.

In the embodiments of the present invention, the logic central node andthe edge node groups are combined to form a logic network element. Fromthe angle of the network management or core network, as the logicnetwork element, just like the conventional base station, can be used asone independent basic management object, the number of managementobjects can be reduced, so the requirements for network management andthe core network can be lowered. In addition, as in the logic networkelement the number of edge nodes that provide services for a user can beflexibly adjusted according to requirements, the scale of the basestation can be customized by carriers accordingly, which provides greatconveniences to the operation and maintenance of carriers.

Furthermore, this embodiment can further support an operating manner inwhich multiple carriers share one network (RAN sharing), that is, in asame base station, different logic network elements can be operated andmaintained by different carriers.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a base stationmanagement method, in which the base station includes a central node andmultiple edge nodes, and the central node and the edge nodes areinterworked in a star manner. As shown in FIG. 4, the method includesthe following steps:

Step 42: Group edge nodes.

Multiple standards of grouping edge nodes may exist, which may flexiblyimplement grouping based on various applications. For example, thegrouping may be performed according to a carrier coordinated multi-point(CoMP) plan; or the grouping may be performed according to a practicaloperating physical area of a carrier; or the grouping may be performedaccording to management requirements of different communicationstandards; or the grouping may be performed according to a sharingstrategy in which multiple carriers operate a radio access networktogether. In addition, the grouping may be further performed accordingto other requirements of carriers.

During the grouping, all edge nodes may be selected for grouping, andalso a part of edge nodes may be selected for grouping. After thegrouping is performed, one or more edge node groups exist in the basestation, in which each edge node group includes at least one edge node.

Step 44: Configure a central node as one or more logic central nodes.

The physical resources of the central node are divided to form logicresources, and the isolation of each logic resource is implemented, soas to virtualize, in the central node, one or more logic central nodes.

Step 46: Combine a logic central node and a edge node group as a logicnetwork element.

Specifically, one logic central node and at least one edge node groupare combined as one logic network element, so that one or more logicnetwork elements may be obtained from the base station in thisembodiment.

Step 48: Manage the logic network elements.

The management specifically may include at least one of the following:resource allocation management and operation and maintenance management.

For the resource allocation management, because the number of edge nodesthat provide services for a user in a logic network element may beflexibly adjusted according to requirements, the scale of a base stationmay be customized by carriers accordingly, so that resource allocationis flexibly implemented and great conveniences are provided foroperation and maintenance of carriers.

For the operation and maintenance management, in operation andmaintenance management of a base station, a conventional base station,for example, one distributed base station, may be regarded as one basicmanagement object, and in this embodiment, a logic network element mayalso be regarded as one basic management object, and a logic networkelement is used as a basic management object for management, so that thenumber of management objects may be effectively reduced and therequirements for network management and the core network are reduced.

Furthermore, inside the logic network element, the logic central nodemanages the edge node groups, and the management includes configurationmanagement and alarm management.

It is easy to understand that, inside a logic network element, becausethe central node and the edge nodes of an edge node group areinterworked in a star manner, the edge nodes of the group performcommunication and interaction, namely, exchange of protocol data,through the logic central nodes.

Inside one logic network element, the central node may further implementresource sharing so that resources are shared by the edge nodes thatbelong to a same edge node group.

Inside the base station, especially, in a same edge node group, toimplement clock synchronization, the method in this embodiment mayfurther include: performing clock synchronization on the edge nodegroups through the logic central node, that is, inside the logic networkelement, outputting, by the logic central node, a reference clock to theedge nodes of a corresponding edge node group, so as to implementsynchronization of edge nodes of one edge node group.

In addition, the method in this embodiment may further include:providing any one of the one or more logic central nodes with at leastone interface for communication with a core network. For example, inFIG. 3, the first logic central node performs exchange with a basestation control device through an Iub interface, and performsinteraction with the core network through the base station controldevice, and the second logic central node directly performs interactionwith the core network through an S1 interface.

During the grouping of edge nodes, because a part of edge nodes may begrouped, after the grouping is performed, several independent edge nodeswhich do not belong to an edge node group remain, so that the remainingedge nodes may be further configured as an independent base station,that is, each remaining edge node independently serves as one basestation, and performs transparent transmission of protocol data betweenthe independent base station and the core network through the centralnode. The independent base station and the central node may be connectedthrough a standard interface. If the independent base station supportsan LTE standard, the independent base station and the central node maybe interworked through an S1 interface. If the independent base stationsupports a UMTS standard, the independent base station and the centralnode may be interworked through an Iub interface.

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a multi-mode base stationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5,the multi-mode base station supports the UMTS standard and the LTEstandard. Persons skilled in the art should understand that FIG. 5 isonly an example, and in this implementation, the multi-mode base stationmay support two or more communication standards, and the communicationstandards may further be other standards such as a GSM standard, inaddition to the UMTS standard and the LTE standard. In thisimplementation, the multi-mode base station includes a central node andmultiple edge nodes, the central node and the multiple edge nodes areconnected in a star manner, and the multiple edge nodes belong tomultiple edge node groups. At least two edge node groups supportdifferent standards, and in the central node, logic central nodes arevirtualized for the at least two edge node groups supporting differentstandards. The logic central nodes are interworked with the at least twoedge node groups supporting different standards, and interworked withthe core network. For example, at least two different interfaces areprovided for direct or indirect interworking with the core network.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the multi-mode base station includes acentral node and two edge node groups. Each edge node in a first groupsupports the UMTS standard, and each edge node in a second groupsupports the LTE standard. The central node has at least one logiccentral node, in which one logic central node is connected to the firstgroup and the second group. The connect can be implemented through auser-defined interface. In addition, the logic central node is furtherconnected to the core network. Specifically, as the multi-mode basestation supports the UMTS standard and the LTE standard, the logiccentral node supports two standard interfaces, in which one interface isan Iub interface, and the other interface is an S1 interface. The logiccentral node is connected to the base station control device through theIub interface, and the base station control device is connected to thecore network, so that the logic central node and the core network canexchange data related to the UMTS standard; while the logical centralnode and the core network can directly exchange data related to the LTEstandard through the S1 interface.

The multi-mode base station provided in an embodiment of the presentinvention can be simply and conveniently implemented, and can furtherflexibly adjust the capacity of the base station according to servicedemand amounts of different standards.

In the multi-mode base station provided in this embodiment, mutualconversion between baseband data and radio data and baseband processingcan be implemented at the edge node.

Furthermore. the standard-related processing such as signaling protocolprocessing and data encapsulation processing can also be implemented atthe edge node, while processing that is not related to the IPsec canstill be implemented at the central node. Therefore, the resourcesharing so that resources are shared by edge nodes that belong to a samestandard can be implemented at the central node, and mutualinterferences among various standards in the multi-mode base station canalso be effectively reduced.

In addition, the multi-mode base station can further include independentedge nodes. The edge nodes do not belong to the group discussed in theforegoing, which can support standards same as the existing groups, andcan also support different standards. Each independent edge node can beregarded as one independent base station. The independent base stationis connected to the central node of the multi-mode base station, forexample, connected to the central node through a standard interface. Thetype of the interface depends on the communication standards supportedby the independent base station. For the LTE standard, the standardinterface can be an S1 interface. The central node performs transparenttransmission of protocol data between the independent base station andthe core network.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of edge node interworking of a basestation according to an embodiment of the present invention. As one ofthe future mainstream technologies of the radio network, the CoMPtechnology can effectively improve the capacity and bandwidth of acellular network, and the effect is especially significant for users atedges of a cell. The CoMP technology requires a large amount of dataexchanged among relevant base stations. In the base station in thisembodiment, the edge nodes are connected to the central node, and thesupport of the CoMP protocol is further added through a user-definedinterface between an edge node and the central node, therebyimplementing highly effective exchange of CoMP data among the edgenodes, and providing technical possibility for the application of theCoMP technology.

In practical operations, it is very difficult to implement highlyeffective exchange among all base stations, and the cost is very high.To guarantee necessary highly effective exchange among the basestations, as shown in FIG. 6, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the edge nodes of a base station may belong to different edgenode groups. For example, each of a first group and a second group hasmultiple edge nodes. Inside a same group, on the basis of theuser-defined interface, all the edge nodes can further add the supportof the CoMP protocol or provide an interface supporting the CoMPprotocol. If the central node also supports the CoMP protocol, the edgenode can implement highly effective interconnection with the centralnode through the CoMP protocol, so as to form one CoMP area. The highlyeffective exchange of CoMP data can be performed among the edge nodesthat belong to a same group, thereby improving the capacity andbandwidth of a cellular network, and further accelerating the mobilebroadband. It should be noted that, the edge nodes that belong to a samegroup may all be configured as an independent base station. In thiscase, highly effective exchange of data can be implemented among theindependent base stations. Alternatively, the edge nodes that belong toa same group and the logic central node form one logic network element.In this case, highly effective exchange of data can be implemented amongthe edge nodes that belong to a same logic network element.

The base station provided in an embodiment of the present inventionincludes a central node and multiple edge nodes. The requirement ofclock synchronization needs to be met between the central node and theedge nodes. Especially, during grouping of the edge nodes, strict clocksynchronization needs to be guaranteed for the edge nodes that belong toa same group. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of clock synchronization ofa base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. Asshown in FIG. 7, the central node acquires clock synchronizationinformation and outputs a reference clock to each edge node group, andsynchronization is performed for the edge nodes that belong to each edgenode group through the reference clock.

Specifically, the central node can acquire clock synchronizationinformation in multiple manners, for example, in a 1588V2, synchronousEthernet or GPS manner, the clock synchronization information of thecentral node is processed to recover one reference clock, and thereference clock is provided to each edge node group. If the central nodehas multiple logic central nodes, each logic central node outputs thereference clock to the corresponding edge node groups (that is, groupsconnected to the logic central node), and the corresponding edge nodegroups implement synchronization of the edge nodes that belong to thegroups through the reference clock. After the synchronization isperformed, the first group of edge nodes belongs to a firstsynchronization clock domain. After the synchronization is performed,the second group of edge nodes belongs to a second synchronization clockdomain. Generally speaking, the first synchronization clock domain andthe second synchronization clock domain have the same clock. In thisembodiment, the central node provides a reference clock for the edgenode groups, and as the scale of the edge node group can be flexibly setaccording to requirements, the size of the synchronization range can beflexibly adjusted.

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a network system accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8, thenetwork system includes a first base station and a core network. Thefirst base station specifically includes a central node and multipleedge nodes connected to the central node. In this embodiment, the edgenode is configured to perform communication with a user, in which themultiple edge nodes belong to one or more edge node groups, and eachedge node group includes at least one edge node. The central node isconfigured to manage the one or more edge node groups, performcommunication with the multiple edge nodes, and perform resource sharingso that resources are shared by the multiple edge nodes.

In this embodiment, the specific implementation of the first basestation can be referred to the description of the embodiments in FIG. 2ato FIG. 2c , which are no longer described in detail here. If the firstbase station supports the LTE standard, the core network includes anS-GW/MME, and the first base station is connected to the S-GW/MME. Ifthe first base station supports the UMTS standard or the GSM standard,the network system further includes a base station control device, thefirst base station is connected to the base station control device, andthe base station control device is connected to the core network. Forthe UMTS, the base station control device is an RNC, whereas for theGSM, the base station control device is a BSC (Base station controller,base station controller). If the first base station supports multiplestandards, for example, when the first base station supports the LTEstandard and the UMTS standard, the network system can include an RNCand an S-GW/MME.

The central node in the first base station can be configured as one ormore logic central nodes. One logic central node and one or more edgenode groups may form one logic network element. Inside the logic networkelement, the logic central node and the edge nodes perform communicationthrough a user-defined interface, and the logic network element (or alogic central node) is further connected to the core network or basestation control device through a standard interface, so as to performcommunication with the core network, for example, connected through anIub interface and an RNC, or connected through an S1 interface and anS-GW/MME.

Furthermore, the network system can further include independent edgenodes. The independent edge nodes and the logic central nodes are notcombined as a logic network element, and instead, are configured as anindependent base station. It should be noted that the independent basestation, in addition to implementing baseband processing and mutualconversion between baseband data and radio data, further needs toperform main control and transmission processing that a conventionalbase station does. The central node in the first base station is furtherconfigured to perform transparent transmission of protocol data betweenthe independent base station and the core network. To adapt to thetrends of evolution of the network towards flattening and the evolutionof the radio access network in the direction of becoming intelligent,for the independent base station, a part of network service functionscan be performed by the central node in the first base station, so thatin this embodiment, the central node of the first base station canfurther support a network service function of services of an independentbase station. Specifically, the network service function includes atleast one of the following functions: local breakout, deep packetinspect, and network cache.

In consideration of the inventory equipment on the network, to implementcompatibility with the inventory equipment to implement smooth evolutionof the network, in this embodiment, the network system can furtherinclude a conventional base station. The conventional base station isdirectly connected to the central node of the first base station, and inthe connection, a standard interface, for example, an SI interface or anIub interface can be adopted, which specifically depends on the standardof the conventional base station. The central node in the first basestation is further configured to perform transparent transmission ofprotocol data between the conventional base station and the corenetwork, and at this time, the central node plays a role of transmissionconvergence. In addition, for the conventional base station, thecoverage area thereof and the user data also have the requirements fornetwork service functions, and the central node further supportscorresponding network service functions, for example, one or more oflocal breakout, deep packet inspect, and network cache. Due to thesimilarities between the independent base station and the conventionalbase station, in this embodiment, the independent base station and theconventional base station can be referred to as a second base station ingeneral.

The central node in the first base station, in addition to providinglogic central nodes for logic network elements, for independent basestations configured from edge nodes and existing conventional basestations on the network, can further provide additional logic centralnodes. The independent base station and the conventional base stationcan share the same logic central node, and may apply different logiccentral nodes, which is not limited in the embodiments of the presentinvention.

In the embodiment of the present invention, as the base station type ofthe network system might further include the independent base stationand/or conventional base station in addition to the first base station,and either the independent base station or the conventional base stationis connected to the central node in the first base station, the centralnode in the first base station further provides traffic identificationfunction, that is, identifies protocol data from different base stationsfor subsequent corresponding processing. For example, for the edge nodesof the first base station, the central node supports one or more typesof processing such as signaling protocol processing, data encapsulationprocessing, and IPsec processing. For the independent base station, thecentral node performs transparent transmission of protocol data betweenthe independent base station and the core network. For the conventionalbase station, the central node performs transparent transmission ofprotocol data between the conventional base station and the corenetwork. Therefore, on the basis of various implementations in thecorresponding embodiments in FIG. 2b or FIG. 2c , the central node canfurther include an identification module configured to identify protocoldata from different base stations.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a network system communication methodprovided in an embodiment of the present invention. The network systemcan be as shown in FIG. 8, which includes a first base station and acore network. The communication method includes: edge nodes of a firstbase station performing communication with a core network through acentral node, in which, specifically, in the network system, themultiple edge nodes are divided into one or more edge node groups, andeach edge node group includes at least one edge node; configuring thecentral node as one or more logic central nodes; any one of the one ormore logic central nodes in the central node performing communicationwith at least one edge node group; the any one of the one or more logiccentral nodes performing communication with the core network directly,or the any one of the one or more logic central nodes being connected toa base station control device, and performing communication with thecore network through the base station control device. Inside the firstbase station, protocol data is exchanged among different edge nodes thatbelong to a same edge node group through the central node. In onegrouping strategy, for example, grouping according to managementrequirements of different communication standards, the edge nodes thatbelong to a same edge node group support the same communicationstandard.

In addition, when the network system further includes an independentbase station or a conventional base station directly connected to thecentral node, the communication method further includes: performingtransparent transmission of protocol data between the second basestation and the core network through the central node.

Persons of ordinary skill in the art should understand that all or apart of the steps of the methods according to the embodiments of thepresent invention may be implemented by a program instructing relevanthardware. The program may be stored in a computer readable storagemedium. When the program is run, the steps of the methods according tothe embodiments are performed. The storage medium may be any medium thatis capable of storing program codes, such as a ROM, a RAM, a magneticdisk, and an optical disk.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are merelyprovided for describing the technical solutions of the presentinvention, but not intended to limit the present invention. It should beunderstood by persons of ordinary skill in the art that although thepresent invention is described in detail with reference to theembodiments, modifications can be made to the technical solutionsdescribed in the embodiments, or equivalent replacements can be made tosome technical features in the technical solutions, as long as suchmodifications or replacements do not depart from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A base station, comprising: multiple edge nodes,configured to perform communication with a terminal, and executebaseband processing and mutual conversion between baseband data andradio data; and a central node, configured to perform communication withthe multiple edge nodes, manage the multiple edge nodes, obtain aresource condition of each edge node of the base station, determine aresource shortage situation occurs on a first edge node of the multipleedge nodes, and forward data that goes beyond processing capability ofthe first edge node to another edge node, having idle resources, of themultiple edge nodes to process so as to implement resources sharing;wherein the multiple edge nodes are grouped into at least two edge nodegroups, each edge node group comprises at least one edge node and the atleast two edge node groups support different communication standardsfrom each other.
 2. The base station according to claim 1, wherein thebase staion is connected to a core network via the central node, and thethe central node provides at least two interfaces to communicate withthe core network, each interface supporting one of the at least twocommunication standards.
 3. The method according to claim 1, whereinedge node(s) that belongs to a same edge node group supports a samecommunication standard.
 4. The base station according to claim 1,wherein edge node(s) that belongs to a same edge node group performsexchange of protocol data through the central node.
 5. The base stationaccording to claim 1, wherein the central node is further configured toprovide a network service function for each edge node of the basestation.
 6. The base station according to claim 5, wherein the networkservice function comprises at least one of the following functions:local breakout, deep packet inspect, and network cache.
 7. The basestation according to claim 1, wherein the central node is furtherconfigured to perform at least one type of the following processing:signaling protocol processing, data encapsulation processing, and IPsecprocessing.
 8. A network system, comprising: a core network; and a firstbase station, comprising: multiple edge nodes, configured to performcommunication with a terminal, and execute baseband processing andmutual conversion between baseband data and radio data;; and a centralnode, configured to perform communication with the multiple edge nodes,manage the multiple edge nodes, obtain a resource condition of each edgenode of the first base station, determine a resource shortage situationoccurs on a first edge node of the multiple edge nodes, and forward datathat goes beyond processing capability of the first edge node to anotheredge node, having idle resources, of the multiple edge nodes to processso as to implement resources sharing; wherein the multiple edge nodesare grouped into at least two edge node groups, each edge node groupcomprises at least one edge node and the at least two edge node groupssupport different communication standards from each other.
 9. Thenetwork system according to claim 8, wherein the core network comprisesan service gateway/mobile management entity (S-GW/MME), and the firstbase station and the S-GW/MME are connected; and/or the network systemfurther comprises a base station control device, the first base stationand the base station control device are connected, and the base stationcontrol device and the core network are connected.
 10. The networksystem according to claim 8, wherein the first base staion is connectedto a core network via the central node, and the the central nodeprovides at least two interfaces to communicate with the core network,each interface supporting one of the at least two communicationstandards.
 11. The network system according to claim 8, wherein in thefirst base station, exchange of protocol data among edge nodes thatbelong to a same edge node group is performed through the central node.12. The network system according to claim 8, wherein the central node isfurther configured to provide a network service function for each edgenode in the first base station.
 13. The network system according toclaim 12, wherein the network service function comprises at least one ofthe following functions: local breakout, deep packet inspect, andnetwork cache.
 14. The network system according to claim 8, wherein inthe first base station, the central node is further configured to outputa reference clock to the edge nodes belong to the one or more edge nodegroups.
 15. The network system according to claim 8, wherein the networksystem further comprises a second base station, the second base stationis connected to the central node in the first base station, and thecentral node is further configured to perform transparent transmissionof protocol data between the second base station and the core network.16. The network system according to claim 8, wherein the network systemfurther comprises a second base station, the second base station isconnected to the central node in the first base station, and the centralnode is further configured to provide a network service function for thesecond base station.
 17. The network system according to claim 16,wherein the network service function comprises at least one of thefollowing functions: local breakout, deep packet inspect, and networkcache.
 18. The network system according to claim 15, wherein, thecentral node in the first base station is further configured to identifyprotocol data from the first base station or the second base station.